Lost and Found
by Aulizia
Summary: Gajeel might wonder why Levy is in Onibus on her own, that doesn't mean he wants to end up on a mission with her, but he might not have a choice. I wouldn't call this a romance, but there's definitely something between these two. Rated for language.
1. I

**- Lost and Found -**

These two are still demanding I write about them. So bossy! I picture this happening at some point before the Edolas arc and the arrival of Pantherlily. I (still) haven't worked out how to write a real romance for them. It's so frustrating because they're just so obviously attracted to each other. Grr! Rated for (mostly Gajeel's) language. Enjoy!

* * *

><p><strong>- Lost and Found -<strong>

For whatsoeuer from one place doth fall,

Is with the tide vnto an other brought:

For there is nothing lost, that may be found, if sought.

~ _The Faerie Queen_, Book V: Canto II: 39, Edmund Spencer

**I.**

Gajeel dropped his bag and sat down. For some reason, the couple that had been occupying the station bench before his arrival got up rather hastily. He grinned, not entirely pleasantly, kicked out his legs and stretched his arms behind his head. He was heading back to Magnolia after successfully completing his latest mission. It hadn't been anything too taxing. He'd barely broken a sweat to be honest, but it had paid well enough, and the coins tasted good.

He chewed on one while he closed his eyes and waited for the train. The next one back to Magnolia was due in a few minutes, although there was a train pulling in on an opposite platform. Disturbing him. He cracked open an eye irritably just in time to see a number of passengers disembark. He watched them uninterestedly, until a flash of familiar blue hair caught his attention.

He opened his other eye, slowly. Watched, waited, and yes- it was her, and she was alone. He frowned and sat a little straighter. Had she taken a solo job? He found it hard to believe that her two private cheerleaders had let her leave without them. Not that he cared. He didn't. It was just strange. Gajeel scowled. And why did she look so fuckin' sad? Despite the distance between them, he could see the downward tug of her mouth.

It had nothing to do with him. He leant back again, although his eyes involuntarily followed her out of sight. She'd probably just come to visit a different library, find a special book, look up some obscure fact, or something equally ridiculous, and anyway, he was leaving, and it was none of his business, and- _and how was it he could smell her scent more strongly than anything else when she'd been half a fuckin' train station away?_

He curled his hand into a fist and smashed it into the seat of the bench. Quite a few more people edged away from him. Was this what it meant to be part of Fairy Tail? Was it normal to feel this fierce pull of- of responsibility towards his fellow guild members? _That_ was what this feeling was, right? He would feel this way no matter who had stepped suspiciously onto the platform, wouldn't he_?_

He didn't know.

Moments later, the train to Magnolia pulled into the station. Gajeel stayed exactly where he was while everyone else ran for the doors. It was a little hard to tell if they were running _towards_ the train, or _away_ from the dragon slayer. His multiple piercings, intimidating garb, and generally threatening demeanour did not seem to instantly endear him to many people.

Cursing under his breath, he watched his train depart a minute later and then eased himself up onto his feet. There would be another train in a couple of hours. It wasn't like he had anything to hurry back to in Magnolia. He'd just check out what was going on. Master Makarov would be sure to make his life hell if anything _did_ happen to her.

Precisely why he thought it might, he couldn't honestly say.


	2. II

**II.**

Levy soon left the town of Onibus behind. Her destination was half a day's walk away and she didn't fancy making the journey any longer than it had to be.

The land to the north of the town was wild. The narrow dirt track that she was following was the only evidence that anyone ever travelled this way. It wound its way through thick overgrown woodland. The trail under the leafy canopy was dark and depressing, and rather suited her mood.

The typically cheerful mage gave a soft sigh as she swung her bag higher onto her shoulder. Maybe she should have let Jet and Droy come along to keep her company this time? Only they were sure to misconstrue the invitation. She kicked a stone along the path, which occupied her thoughts for all of thirty seconds. On looking up, she saw there was an old man driving an ox cart towards her.

Levy stepped back onto the grass verge to let him pass. She smiled and called out a friendly greeting, but he simply glared at her and made a protective sign with his hand as he drove by. Completely taken aback, Levy watched him disappear down the road. She suppressed a small shiver and quickly started walking again.

She knew the path opened up a little way ahead. The trees thinned for a while and the road widened when it met a crossroads. She couldn't entirely control the urge to keep glancing over her shoulder as she hurried along. She felt as though she was being watched and couldn't manage to relax until she stepped out into the sunshine.

Levy shook her head, pleased there had been no one around to see her little display of foolishness. She _knew_ there was nothing in the woods that could harm her! She'd walked this road many times before. It was just- that man. She rubbed her bare arms to ward off an unnatural chill.

As expected, the road soon started to widen. Levy felt herself relax with each step that she took away from the stranger. She could already see the crossroads in the distance. Her brow furrowed as she squinted into the sunshine. Was there someone sitting with their back against the sign? Her heart sank a little, but there was no other way around that she could take.

She marched on, and as she did so an unnerving suspicion began to form in her mind. She recognised that figure. Her fingers tightened around the strap of her bag. What was _he_-! Her heart tripped in a completely inappropriate fashion. She really needed to work out what that reaction meant. It seemed to be happening more and more often when she was around the Iron Dragon Slayer.

Mirajane had mentioned that Gajeel had taken a mission somewhere west of Onibus, but- but that was at least twenty miles away from where they were now! So just what was he doing casually sitting on the ground, watching her walk towards him with a very distinct smirk upon his face?


	3. III

**III.**

"Hey there, shrimp."

Gajeel sat with an arm resting on his knee. He looked up at the little Fairy Tail mage, quite a novelty in itself. Not that the new perspective of her body was bad. Quite the opposite. The dress that she was wearing was hardly long enough to deserve the name, and so for some time all he'd been able to see were her slim shapely legs walking towards him. Now she was closer, he'd dragged his eyes up to her face. She looked confused, but not precisely _displeased_ to see him.

And she no longer smelled of fear.

In the end that was what had made up Gajeel's mind. She'd been easy enough to follow, and he'd just about decided to turn around and leave her to _whatever_ it was that she was up to when her scent had changed. Not much, just a tiny nuance, but the bitter taste of her fear had coated the back of his throat.

"What are you doing here?" Levy asked.

"Just finished a job."

"Your last job wasn't anywhere near here." She eyed him suspiciously, and he grinned despite himself.

"Been keeping tabs on me?"

"Of course not!" she blushed.

He took advantage of her embarrassment to dismiss any further enquiries into his sudden appearance, by asking a question of his own.

"What are _you_ doing here?"

"Me?" Her eyes dipped for a second. "I'm going to visit my parents."

"Really?" He couldn't quite keep the note of surprise from his voice. He'd never thought about Levy having parents- never thought of her as belonging anywhere but Fairy Tail. "Where do they live?"

"_Why?"_

"I'll walk with you," he announced, rising to his feet. Levy's eyes widened as they watched him. She cast a look back in the direction that she had just come from.

"But- but aren't you going back to Magnolia, I mean- if you've finished your mission?"

"You're in an awful hurry to get rid of me." He grinned unpleasantly. "Don't you fancy having to introduce me?"

"It's not that," she muttered, but he thought it probably was- he tried to imagine Levy's parents- to have raised the young woman standing in front of him they'd have to be kind, soft-spoken, probably protective of their daughter.

Oh yeah, they'd love him.

"Hey!" he shouted, when he realised she was carrying on without him. She shot a glance over her shoulder without slowing. It wasn't exactly as though she was hard to keep pace with, but his incredibly short temper was one spark away from being lit.

"Gajeel, _why_ are you following me?"

"Honestly?" He fell into step beside her. "I don't think it's safe for you to be wandering around on your own," he said bluntly.

Levy's footsteps faltered. Her head dropped low, so low that her hair fell in front of her face, obscuring her expression. When she spoke her voice was tight and brittle.

"You think- you think I'm so _weak_ I can't walk through the countryside without a bodyguard?"

"That's not what I said!"

"Good! Because in that case you can go back to Fairy Tail!" she snapped at him, piercing him with one hard glare before she picked up her pace.

'_the hell!_ If she thought, for one second, he was going to let her get away with talking to him like that, when he'd just rearranged his entire fuckin' day to keep an eye on her, then she was even crazier than he'd thought!


	4. IV

**IV.**

Stupid man! Stupid arrogant infuriating-

"Why are you still following me?" she shouted.

Gajeel didn't answer so Levy spun on her heel and planted a nice large STONE Solid Script in the middle of his path.

She turned away again without waiting to see the outcome of her action. Given the almost immediate sound of exploding rock, she didn't think she'd even managed to break his stride, but there was something perversely satisfying about doing it all the same.

"If you wanted to play you only had to ask!"

What she _wanted_ was to be left alone. He had _hurt_ her! She felt like screaming. But perhaps that was because, deep down, she feared he was right. She _was_ weak. And of all the people to see it, why did it have to be him? Shame made her angry. She turned again, not even sure what she intended to do this time, but she hadn't realised that Gajeel had closed most of the distance between them.

He was so much closer than she'd expected! She rocked back on her heels to gain a few valuable inches of personal space. No good! She placed her hands flat against his abdomen when he showed no intention of stopping and _every_ intention of trampling her under foot!

Oh.

That worked.

Yes, that made him stop.

He froze under the light pressure of her fingertips. A few words she typically associated with the dragon slayer zipped through her frazzled brain: hard, strong, _dangerous_- but a couple of unexpected ones appeared to join them, words like warm- no, hot- _tense_.

Despite her better judgement, Levy looked up. Her gaze collided with red- red eyes that could destroy her. Her heartbeat thundered in her ears. She had never seen that expression on his face before. _Hunger?_ She licked her lips hesitantly, but mercifully a shout from further up the road interrupted whatever nonsense had been about to spill from them.

Connection broken, she turned around again to see who had called out. But her fingertips remembered the powerful form of his body long after she had clenched them into fists. _Concentrate, Levy!_ A young boy was running down the road. He skidded to a stop when he reached them.

"You used magic!" he panted, staring at them wildly. "Are you mages?" He looked between them frantically. "Have you come to take my grandfather's job?"

Levy's head was still spinning. "Um-"

"What job?"

"Gajeel!" she exclaimed, struggling to focus. "We can't just accept a job. It has to be formerly submitted to the guild!"

"Who said _we_ were going to accept it? I'm just asking what it is," he said pointedly.

His tone was different. His voice was rougher. And his words still managed to hurt her. Levy chewed back a few choice words of her own that even he might not have known.

"Well kid, what is it?" he demanded.

The boy might have been around seven. He was clean, but shabbily dressed, obviously extremely poor. He stared up at the Iron Dragon Slayer with a mixture of fear and awe on his thin face as tears started to slide down his cheeks.

"A demon took my mother!"


	5. V

**V.**

"I thought you said we couldn't take the job?"

"I know," she agreed mildly, her whole manner was preoccupied.

He fuckin' hated that! Did she know- did she have any idea, how close he'd come to- he closed his eyes against the memory. As if that could stop it! _Of course_ she didn't know. She was so fuckin' innocent- even if her body did want to betray her. He couldn't breathe for the scent of her surrounding him!

She had been holding the kid's hand as he led them off the beaten track to his grandfather's house. When they came into view of a modest hut, the boy ran on ahead with a shout of greeting.

"Do you think it _is_ a demon?" she asked anxiously. Finally looking at him again.

"No," Gajeel grunted.

Levy giggled. Suddenly. Unexpectedly. It was like a switch had been flicked inside him. All that hard angry steel turned back into humane flesh.

"You sound so grumpy!" she smiled up at him, trusting and unafraid. "And if it _is_ a demon, then I suppose I _am_ glad you decided to be my escort," she confessed with a good-natured huff.

"I still thought you said we couldn't take the job."

"I know, but-" she bit her lip and shrugged her shoulders. "Well, we have to do _something_, don't we?"

He decided not to answer that question. He didn't precisely share her fine set of morals.

"What about your parents? Aren't they expecting you?"

"Oh- they won't mind if I'm late," Levy said quietly, shifting her gaze back to the hut. The boy re-emerged a moment later, followed by an elderly man who walked with a pronounced stoop.

"Riku tells me you have come for the job, but surely this cannot be? Saburo only left with my request this morning."

"The kid says your having problems with a demon."

The old man's worn face showed his distress.

"Yes. To think tragedy would strike again so soon! My daughter recently brought her family to live with me after the death of my wife. I begged her not to risk it, but she would not listen!"

"Not to risk it? What do you mean?" Levy asked.

"The demon in these woods prays on women."

"R-Really?"

"It took my daughter two nights ago when she was out walking. Riku's father chased after it, but-"

Levy pressed her fingertips to her lips. "He's not-"

"Riku and I found him and managed between us to bring him home, but he has not woken since that night."

"How far did he chase it?" Gajeel asked thoughtfully.

"We found him two miles away. Riku could show you the spot."

"Not necessary." Gajeel folded his arms across his chest. "All right, I'll take the job."

"_We'll_ take the job!" Levy interjected.

He scowled. He didn't need a partner. He particularly didn't need a partner who could get under his skin so easily! But maybe, just _maybe_ the best way to make sure she stayed out of trouble was to have her close enough to keep an eye on?


	6. VI

**VI.**

"Jiro-san said this demon prays on women, but I've travelled through this forest many times and I've never heard of it," Levy mused, following Gajeel as he led the way in the direction that they'd been pointed. "You'd think something like that would be pretty well known, wouldn't you?"

"You think he's lying?"

"I just think it's strange."

"Because it hasn't got you yet?"

"Because I've never even heard of it!"

"Your parents haven't mentioned it?"

"N-no." She did her best to ignore the probing look he shot in her direction. "So, what exactly is the plan?" she asked doubtfully. It seemed to her that they were just tramping haphazardly through the undergrowth.

"We're tracking it."

"We're tracking it _how_?"

"Its scent was all over that house. It's not hard to follow." He paused and frowned. "But it shouldn't be this strong," he muttered to himself.

Levy's eyes widened with surprise. She knew dragon slayers had a keen sense of smell, but this was incredible. Just as she was starting to wonder exactly what else he might be able to deduce from scent alone, she realised what he had said.

"Gajeel," she began slowly, "how could its scent be all over the house? Jiro-san said his daughter went missing when she was away from home taking a walk."

"I know."

Levy paused, and then smiled self-deprecatingly. She really didn't give him enough credit sometimes. There was an awful lot more to him than the crude violent fighter that he seemed to want the world to see. Her expression turned tender as she watched his back. She would try very hard not to forget it again.

It took them perhaps half an hour to reach the spot where Riku's father had been found. Levy didn't need Gajeel to point it out. Even she could see what had happened.

"There's so much blood," she whispered, looking at the rusty stains that coated much of the forest greenery. If that wasn't bad enough dusk was closing in. She took an involuntary step closer to Gajeel. "Do- do you think she's still alive?"

"Depends what it wants her for," Gajeel said grimly.

He was frowning hard as he stared down at her. She looked at him with a silent question in her eyes, but he didn't say anything else. Instead he sighed, set his mouth in a tough, unyielding line, nodded in a new direction and continued leading the way deeper into the forest.

It was maybe another half an hour later that they heard it. A soft eerie singing that made Levy's skin prickle all over. She wrapped her arms around her waist. Gajeel glanced in her direction.

"Can you understand that?"

She listened harder. She had been so surprised by the doleful melody that she hadn't been paying enough attention to the actual words. Her brow furrowed in concentration as she closed her eyes to better focus on what she was hearing.

"It's a- I think it's a lullaby, but the language is _so old_-"

"Creepiest fuckin' lullaby I've ever heard."

Levy swallowed a nervous smile. "I guess we follow it?"

"Guess so," he grinned dangerously.


	7. VII

**VII.**

The song led them to the top of a narrow gorge. The entrance to which was well hidden. No, he realised. Not well hidden. Nonexistent. They'd have to climb straight down. The sides of the ravine weren't completely sheer, but they were incredibly steep and just to complicate matters it was growing darker by the minute.

"Why have you stopped?"

_Why had he stopped?_ Because he might be able to manage the descent, but if she slipped she was as good as dead. See, this was why he worked alone! He knew his own limitations. He didn't know Levy's and she was so damn _tiny_ she looked like a strong gust of wind might knock her over! Maybe he could carry-

"I'll go first if you like," she offered, staring at him quizzically, as though she couldn't see the problem.

"_I'll _go first," he growled.

"Because you're the big tough man?" she asked with a roll of her eyes, her hand finding her hip.

"Because I'm the big tough man who'll knock you clean off the fuckin' rock face if I fall on top of you!"

"Oh." Levy looked instantly contrite. "Sorry."

He didn't wait around to hear her apology. He lowered himself over the edge and started to climb down. It was even harder than it had looked to find places to grip as he carefully made his descent. Not to mention the fact that the creepy-ass song was still filling his head!

Less than halfway down, his muscles were starting to burn, and a cautious (how exactly had he forgotten her dress was that short?) upward glance told him that Levy was fairing even worse. She didn't have the advantage of his reach, so it was taking her twice as long to find anything resembling a foot or handhold.

"Gajeel!"

"What?"

"It's stopped!"

"What's stopped?"

"The so-!"

_Song._ Fuck! The side of the gorge erupted in a sudden explosion as the stone under his hands disintegrated into fragments. Grip gone, he started to fall. Fast. The jagged rock tore at his grasping fingers until he transformed his right arm into a metal blade and slammed it into the bedrock. Sparks flew. He braced himself against the pain as he slowed to an eventual stop.

He looked up, just in time, squinted hard against the showering debris. He made a grab for Levy's arm as she fell passed him. His fingers missed, slid against her skin, found her wrist, her hand, locked as her fingers tightened around his own.

It was several seconds until his heart started to beat again.

"I think- we may have found the demon," she panted, gently bumping against the rock face as she dangled off his arm.

"Yeah? I think it found us!" he growled, trying to look over his shoulder, as he pulled her up. "How far are we from the bottom?"

"_Far."_

He spat, swore, demanded: "Hold onto me."

She didn't hesitate. _Why_ didn't she hesitate? She scaled his body, wrapped her arms around his neck, her legs around his waist. He could feel the soft swell of her breasts as they pressed against his back as she clung to him. She was going to kill him if nothing else did.

"Go!" she urged, as rock exploded around them again.

He pushed off, flew downward, metal scraping against stone as he used his body as little as possible to slow their descent. Faster- faster- they tried to outrun the rockslide.


	8. VIII

**VIII.**

Levy slipped limply off Gajeel's body, legs trembling as her feet hit solid ground. She was going to analyse all of this to death if she got home- _when_ she got home, but right now she was simply glad to be alive.

As the dust slowly settled she followed Gajeel's gaze. It was riveted on one single point in front of them. She brought a hand up in front of her body, braced and ready to do anything that she could to help the situation.

When the last of the powdered stone had cleared, the sight that met Levy's eyes through the failing light was the last one that she had ever expected.

A child stood before them. A boy of about Riku's age, dressed all in white. He glowed in the growing moonlight. Levy lowered her hand hesitantly.

"Don't let his appearance fool you," Gajeel hissed.

The child's silver eyes turned towards the dragon slayer.

"You will not take mother."

His voice was like the ring of an empty glass. Levy took a small step forward. The mirror-like eyes narrowed as they shifted to her face.

"Where is m- mother?" she stammered.

"Move!" Gajeel roared, knocking her out of the way as the ground that she was standing on exploded. She hit the grass with a thud. "Go find her!" he yelled, without taking his eyes off the demon child.

"_Where?"_

"Over there!" he indicated with the slightest inclination of his head. Levy scrambled to her feet.

"But you-"

"_Now_ Levy!"

It was hard to obey him this time, but she understood that this was what he needed from her. She ran in the direction he'd indicated, trusting him to be all right, trusting him to watch her back, which he must have done because the new explosion that rang in her ears didn't touch her body.

A tree branch clipped her face, but she pushed on- almost missing what she was looking for in the gathering darkness. Riku's mother was huddled on the ground, her eyes glazed, her arms twisted around her knees. Levy made a grab for her hand, but the woman barely responded.

"Come on! Get up!"

"He won't let me," she chanted. "He'll never let me leave."

"Mother. You will not take mother."

Levy twisted, gasped- braced herself as the valley floor was ripped apart, not by the child's explosive magic this time, but by one of Gajeel's dragon slayer attacks. She did her best to protect the woman, expecting that it would all be over when the dust cleared.

But it wasn't over, and if the look on Gajeel's face was anything to go by, he was just as confused as she was- why hadn't his attack worked?

"You will not take mother."

"Don't let him near me!" Riku's mother screamed, clutching Levy's arm.

She just had time to use her Solid Script to form a SHIELD before the explosion hit. She saw Gajeel launch himself at the demon child again, but, again, he didn't seem to do any damage.

"Physical attacks aren't working!"

The look he shot in her direction was quite frightening. "Be sure to let me know if you think of a different kind of attack I can use!" he snarled.

Ah. Levy gasped. No, surely not? She looked at the demon, the boy, the child. Maybe- was it possible- could it be- oh _fuck_.

Oh great. He was rubbing off on her.

Move. She had to move.

"Stop!" she screamed, pushing herself off the ground, running forwards into the fight.

"Levy!"

"You will not take mother."

He was looking at her again. And she was so very frightened. But her courage had always been stronger than her fear.

"Look at her!" Levy begged, stumbling to a standstill. "_Look!_ She's not your mother! I think- I think you've been alone for a long time- so long, but please, _look_, you must let her go!"

She stared imploringly into his face- his old, young, child's face. For how many hundreds of years might he have been trapped in this forest to know a lullaby in a language that had been dead for centuries? His silver eyes fell on Riku's mother, studied her, and then they looked slowly away from the hunched woman.

They looked at Levy.

"Then you will stay? You will be mother?"

"The hell she will!" Gajeel swore, throwing himself into another attack. The child sent him flying backwards with the shadow of a thought.

"Please don't-" Levy choked softly.

"But they took mother. The men with swords."

"I'm sorry," she whispered, shaking, but walking slowly forwards. "I'm sorry. You've been hurting for a very long time, haven't you?"

She knelt in front of the child, who stood like a statue as she gently wrapped her arms around him. It was like holding smoke. Except he was cold. So very cold. If only she could reach him.

"I made them mother," he said, in his confused glass voice. "They should have loved me. Why didn't they love me? I remember-" he gasped. _"I remember love."_

He turned his face to her, his silver eyes becoming clear blue as he blinked slowly. He touched her face with his ghostly fingertips as tears coated his cheeks.

"It was so warm," he smiled, vanishing into starlight.


	9. IX

**IX.**

It was morning before they talked about it. They sat together in silence through the rest of the night. Her head rested on his shoulder as she dozed in fitful starts, while all of her fingers were clasped tightly around one of his hands, as though she was afraid he might try to leave.

"You knew it was going to work, right? I mean, you'd read about it in one of your books?" he asked eventually, looking down into Levy's upturned face. It was smudged with dirt, but miraculously only grazed with a few light scratches. He couldn't explain how glad that made him.

She smiled nervously. "I thought it probably would."

"_Probably?"_

"He was just a scared child who'd lost his mother."

"That's not much consolation to the families of the women he abducted over the years," Gajeel said with a curl of his lip.

"No," Levy sighed sadly. "It's not." He watched as she looked over at Riku's mother. Sympathy, concern and relief all clouded her features. He didn't know if her face was unusually expressive or if he was just getting better at reading it. "She seems exhausted. I wonder if he was draining her life force in order to exist?"

"Maybe. He had to be getting all that power from somewhere."

"How are we going to get her home?"

He slid his eyes back to meet hers. She smiled brightly. No way. He was not a fuckin' pack horse.

"Wake her up and make her walk," he said blandly.

"That's not very chivalrous, Gajeel."

"That surprises you?"

She laughed- that warm, husky laugh of hers that did wicked things to his body. He closed his eyes momentarily. She absolutely was the most disconcerting person that he'd ever met.

"It'll be easier going back at least," he murmured, looking at the collapsed valley wall. They'd still have to climb, but a path of sorts had been forged from all the destruction.

"Good." He felt the tremor that ran through her small frame. "Thanks for catching me," she whispered, the terrifying memory of her fall evident in her voice.

Her thanks always made him feel uncomfortable. Undeserving. He shrugged it off like an ill-fitting piece of clothing.

"So are you going to wake her up?" he asked, nodding at Riku's mother.

Levy wrinkled her nose, disgruntled by the dismissal, but she rose to do as she was asked. The spot beside him cooled quickly in her absence.

He watched her work, his eyes heavy with fatigue. She had to be equally as tired, but her disposition was unfailingly kind as she gently roused the sleeping woman and urged her to begin the walk home.

It took all morning to make the return journey. Gajeel strolled slightly behind the two women. Levy walked alongside Riku's mother, her arm linked through the older woman's, as she kept up a soothing monologue of comforting chatter.

Riku was, of course, the first to spot them on their arrival. He ran to his mother, tears running down his face, and for the first time the woman showed some real sign of life as she sank to her knees, weeping as she embraced her son.


	10. X

**X.**

"You found her!" Jiro-san wept openly. "I did not believe it could be done! The demon. He is truly gone?"

"Yes," Levy said quietly, watching as Riku took his mother inside. "You shouldn't have any more trouble."

"Bless you! Both of you."

"There's still something I don't understand," Gajeel said slowly. Levy looked up at him, eyebrows lifted, unsure of what he was going to say. He was staring at the old man grimly. "You said the demon prayed on women, but before your daughter was taken, it hadn't attacked for years." His gaze shifted momentarily to Levy. He looked pensive. "Fifteen, twenty years, maybe?"

Jiro-san's face grew serious. "How do you know-?"

"And it had been here before. In this house. Lots of times."

_"How can you know that?"_

"You don't have to answer those questions," Levy said quickly, sensing the old man's distress. "It doesn't matter!"

Jiro-san's tired eyes turned to look at her, and he smiled somewhat weakly.

"No, no, if anyone deserves to hear the truth, after what you have done for my family, it is you. Yes, I will tell you." He nodded his head, as though steeling his mind against the task. "My daughter you have seen is young to have a father as old as me," he laughed unhappily. "We had a son, many years before she was born, he was a good sweet child, but very sickly. He died younger than Riku is now. My wife was never the same afterwards. I brought her here, far away from our homeland, to help her forget. It did not work and often- oh very often I would hear her talking to a child. A boy, I think.

"There were rumours of a demon in these parts, but they seemed to fade away soon after we came here. I am a stupid old farmer, what did I know of anything important? I thought it would stop. I begged her to stop in the end, but no, it never did. She tried to hide it from me. Sometimes I would think he had gone away. You see, I realised, eventually, that it was not the grieving ramblings of an inconsolable mother. But what could I do? It helped her. I am sure it helped her in its own way. But you see, by doing nothing for so long I brought this terrible pain to my daughter."

"You weren't to know," Levy said, shaking her head, tears gathering in her own eyes. "You thought you were doing the right thing!"

"You are very kind, child. Your heart is tender. But your man, I think, knows I am to blame."

Levy's cheeks burned a fiery red, but Gajeel spoke before she could find the voice that had traitorously failed her.

"Blaming yourself won't change anything."

Jiro-san's sad smile returned. "But still, I think this burden is mine to carry." His eyes drifted to the road. "Ah, I see Saburo has returned from Onibus."

Levy looked around and started, her mouth dropped open. "The creepy ox cart man!" she squeaked.

She felt Gajeel's eyes turn to her in question, and blushed under his scrutiny. Meanwhile, the man that she had passed on the road from Onibus drove his ox and cart up to Jiro-san's small hut.

"I took your request to the guild, Jiro, but they said not to hold out much hope of anyone taking it for the piddling amount you're offering."

"How much _are_ we getting paid?" Gajeel mused aloud.

Levy winced.

"Nothing," she informed him, before anyone else had a chance to speak. "We can't take the fee when the job wasn't given to Fairy Tail," she said calmly, ignoring the fact that a muscle was starting to twitch in his clenched jaw. "When we pass through Onibus on our way home we'll inform them that the job no longer exists, Jiro-san."


	11. XI

**XI.**

"We didn't even get paid!"

"We couldn't take the money when it wasn't a Fairy Tail job," Levy tried, again, to explain. "It would have reflected badly on the guild."

"Like I fuckin' care!" Gajeel exploded.

"Oi! No cursing on my cart!"

Gajeel twisted to glare at the driver, and then turned imploringly to his little blue-haired companion. "Can I hit him?"

"No!" she spluttered, obviously trying not to laugh. "It's very kind of Saburo-san to give us a lift."

"You said he was creepy!"

"Well yes, but that was before, when he thought I was the demon," she shrugged and smiled with awkward embarrassment.

He groaned and threw himself back so that he was lying on the rough wood of the cart staring up at the clear blue sky. A moment later the view was obscured by Levy's face. He considered it an improvement.

"You're not _really_ mad about the money, are you?" she asked softly.

"_Yes."_

She studied him until he started to become uncomfortable. Although, he'd never had the chance to notice there were flecks of gold and burnished copper in her eyes before. And then, all of a sudden she smiled and sat back, swung her legs over the back of the cart, while happily pronouncing:

"Liar."

He groaned again and covered his face with an arm, determined to ignore her for the rest of the journey, which was an infuriating and ultimately impossible undertaking.

Saburo stopped just outside a village that was so small Gajeel doubted it even had a name. They climbed off the back of the cart and (Levy) thanked him for the ride. The light had gone out of her face. She was wearing the same sad expression that had first caught his eye back at the train station in Onibus.

"Come on." He adopted a tone of voice that vaguely resembled 'gentle', took her by the hand and started walking. He knew something was wrong when she didn't try to resist.

"Gajeel, I- I should- tell you-"

Whatever she had been trying to say remained unsaid.

The graveyard was easy to find. He stopped outside its wrought iron gates and looked down at her carefully.

"How long have you known?" she asked quietly, talking not to his face, but the centre of his chest. He brushed his thumb over her knuckles.

"I'm not stupid."

"I don't think you're stupid," she said, raising her eyes immediately. "I just- everyone has-" she sighed and shrugged her small shoulders heavily "-_stuff_ they carry with them." She dug the toe of her sandal into the soft ground. "I guess I liked that you didn't know. For a little while, it made it seem not so real."

"And now?"

"And now? Now I'm glad that I didn't have to come here on my own this year."

"Then I'll wait for you here."

"Thank you, Gajeel," she said through a watery smile.

For a second she looked like she was going to- but no, of course she didn't-

He let her go, but he watched closely as she slowly made her way across the graveyard to a pair of neat headstones. She knelt in front of them and bowed her head. He leant his shoulder against a large oak tree and breathed deeply. So _this_ was what responsibility was like, huh? _This_ was the same way he felt about every member of Fairy Tail, was it?

He rubbed the heel of his hand against his forehead.

What a fuckin' joke!

**- Fin -**

* * *

><p>And there you have it, just a little story that was knocking about inside my head.<p>

Many thanks to **HeartGold12** and **Medley Nightfallen** who were so awesomely speedy at reviewing they got in before I'd managed to post the whole story! Thanks guys!


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